The invention relates to corn pickers which have a husking bed consisting of a series of rolls that remove the husks from the freshly picked corn. The invention also relates to stationary installations of seed corn plants where the picked ears of corn are received and passed through a husking roll bed in order to remove husks from ears that may have passed through the corn picker without having the husks removed.
Husking roll beds are common and include a bed of rolls, usually four in number, with each pair of rolls being rotated in a direction with respect to its companion roll to move anything downwardly between the rolls. Also, one of each pair of rolls is power driven and covered with a friction material, such as rubber, while the other roll is normally uncovered. The function of these rolls is to aid in removing the husks in combination with rotating flexible fingers positioned above the husking bed. Rolls also move the ears from the entrance end to the discharge end of the husking bed.
Normally, the ears travel down the husking bed on the rolls without difficulty, the ears lying flat between the rolls. However, occasionally, the shank of an ear will get caught between the rolls and the ear will travel down the husking bed in an upright position. When this occurs, because of the structure of the discharge end of the husking bed, an ear jammed in this manner will not be discharged from the bed. Obviously, a jammed ear will cause the ears behind it to back up creating a jam in the husking bed. The only way presently to effectively remove the jam is to manually loosen the jammed ear or ears while the machine is running. Obviously, this is dangerous and has resulted in many injuries to operators of corn pickers.
The prior art shows attempts to minimize the jamming problem by more evenly distributing the ears over the husking bed. For example, Bond U.S. Pat. No. 2,619,967 shows a feeding mechanism consisting of a plurality of rotating metal blades extending tranversely over and across the husking rolls. The purpose of these rotating blades is to assure even distribution of the ears over the husking bed at the entrance end of the husking bed thereby eliminating piling of the ears along one side of the bed. Similarly, Bulfer U.S. Pat. No. 2,700,858 discloses a means for agitating and moving ears at the entrance end of the husking bed forcing them downwardly for proper engagement with the husking rolls. However, in spite of these distribution means attempting to correct the problem at the entrance end of the husking bed, ears will still occasionally jam between the husking rolls, move to an upright position and jam the husking bed at its discharge end.
There is therefore a need for an effective and inexpensive means for eliminating the jams that occur along the husking bed by loosening the jammed ears at the discharge end of the husking bed. There is a need for an improvement which will correct this jamming in an effective manner without damaging the ears properly positioned on the husking bed and so as to eliminate any necessity for manually attempting to loosen jammed ears thus eliminating the hazard results from the operator using his or her hands to eliminate the jam.